Whitney Pipkin writes at the intersection of food, agriculture and the environment from her home base in Northern Virginia. Her work for the Bay Journal often focuses on the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, and she is a fellow of the Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

High Tide in Dorchester: A new documentary from the Bay Journal

Though it begins with aerial shots of the seemingly endless tidal marshes in Maryland’s Dorchester County, the latest Bay Journal documentary is about a fast-approaching future in which that landscape could be entirely underwater.

High Tide in Dorchester is the second collaboration between Bay Journal columnist Tom Horton, Bay Journal photographer and videographer Dave Harp and environmental filmmaker Sandy Cannon-Brown. The same crew produced the documentary Beautiful Swimmers Revisited in 2015, also sponsored by the Bay Journal.

High Tide starts with the image that inspired it: Horton standing waist-deep in water — in what was once a field outside his father’s hunting cabin on the Honga River, where he played baseball as a child. That field is long gone, as are thousands of acres of land that have been lost in recent decades to a mixture of rising seas, erosion and high tides across the county.

If the consequences of climate change “seem a little hazy to you,” Horton says near the film’s start, “come take a tour of Dorchester County — where the future is now.”

The film introduces viewers to residents, scientists, public officials and a cemetery manager who are dealing with the aftermath of rising seas on a landscape that is changing right before their eyes. Horton calls Dorchester County “the rural Ground Zero” of sea level rise in the Chesapeake, where climate change is leaving a mark -- not in 25 or 50 years, but now.

“Essentially, that future that we’ve been scaring you with — it’s here now in lower Dorchester,” he said.

Rising seas, the film reveals, have already left their mark in places like Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, where saltwater intrusion has left only the spindly, ghostlike stumps of former forests behind. Erosion in another part of the county has unearthed a cemetery’s tombstones and placed some of its markers underwater. The film shows fish swimming over the headstones. Roads in Dorchester are frequently too flooded to use. One resident raised his home more than seven feet off the ground last year in his determination to stay.

Though the numbers are startling — projections suggest that half of the remaining land in Maryland’s fourth-largest county will be underwater in a century — the scenes portrayed across the screen lend them gravitas.

These moments, which come and go with the tides, were more easily captured because of the film crew’s proximity. Harp lives in Dorchester County, and he and Horton spend a considerable amount of time there reporting stories for the Bay Journal, making them fitting guides for the film.

“At one point, I said, ‘We might as well make a film. We’re out here all the time anyway,’” Horton said.

Though they’re familiar with the landscape, Horton said they learned to listen to the people they interviewed, to understand how different —yet similar — local views are about the changes taking place. While scientists interviewed in the film might refer to those changes as sea level rise, others simply see erosion. Horton said they tried to convey that the cause is, in many ways, all of the above.

“You hear people say, ‘I don’t know if the sea level is coming up, but I know we’ve got tide on the land more than we used to,’” he said. “A lot of times we’re saying the same thing in different languages.”

The filmmakers and their sponsors, including the Town Creek Foundation, Shared Earth Foundation and other donors, want to see the documentary used as an educational tool to spur discussions about sea level rise.

After the film is officially released, groups are encouraged to contact the producers to arrange viewings and discussion sessions. For information, visit the film’s website at hightidedorchester.org.

Whitney Pipkin writes at the intersection of food, agriculture and the environment from her home base in Northern Virginia. Her work for the Bay Journal often focuses on the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, and she is a fellow of the Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Comments

By submitting a comment, you are consenting to these Rules of Conduct. Thank you for your civil participation. Please note: reader comments do not represent the position of Chesapeake Media Service.

Ted Spickler on February 08, 2018:

I was surprised. Not only is the video accurate from a scientific viewpoint but displays great sensitivity to the real people who live in the bay region. Those of us who are transplants have no sense of connection to these folk but the video brings us into their lives. I was blown away by the artistry of the video as well. A dynamite presentation all around!

Joseph Corcoran on February 12, 2018:

Thank you so much for that wonderful video . Some years ago I and my extended family got kayaks and guide from Blackwater Paddle and went down the Transquaking River . Great experience .
I was happy to see Tom Horton looking so well and still involved . I will never forget the piece he wrote about the days herring ran in Herring Run in Baltimore where I grew up . In fact I'm still looking for a copy .

Comments are now closed for this article. Comments are accepted for 60 days after publication.